Innovation Special Report: Aviation, Aerospace and Prizes

Next week's bumper issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology includes a special report on innovation, led by Managing Editor, Technology, Graham Warwick.

We explore how government agencies, private foundations and aerospace and defense companies are using prize challenges to attract new players to the industry and to stimulate breakthrough ideas for future innovation. And we take a closer look at how DARPA and NASA are using competitions to tackle the challenges they face in the next stages of robotics.

Subscribers of the digital edition can access interactive extras that take a deeper look at the past, current and future innovation prizes, including the Daily Mail prize for aviation achievement, which was won by Louis Bleriot when he crossed the channel in 1909 and the Orteig prize won by Charles Lindbergh when he flew solo across the Atlantic in 1927. In more recent times, NASA's Centennial Challenge has attracted hundreds of competitors and DARPA makes more inventive use of prize challenges than any other government agency. See all of these, and more, on tablet devices from 6pm EST.